Wall construction



.dimly 1 111 J. H. SIMMS WALL CONSTRUCTION Filed Feb. 13 192s a sheefsheet l M Juny 1 19m, 11,499,433

` J. H. SIMMS WALL CONSTRUCTION Filed Feb. 13. 1923 Z Sheets-Sheet 2 t mints, eaoarrra.

WALL CONSTBUCTIN.

dpplication med February 13, 1923. berll lll'o. 613,759.

,geles and State of California, have invented new and useful lllnprovernents in Wall Constructions, of which the following is a detailed specication.

'lhis 1nvention relates to building structures generally, and although not neces-` sarily limited to wall construction, it has its most specific application in wall structures and accordingly l shall describe the invention as being a wall construction. As applied to building structures generally and wall construction particularly, it is a general object of the invention to provide a structure that has a maximum of strength and solidity, earthquake proof, and at the same time requires and contains a minimum of material and involves a minimum of labor in setting it up. ln the typical form of structure that l describe herein it may be said that an object of the invention is to construct a wall of a single thickness of bricks or blocks, and yet give tothat wall blt.

a strength and solidity that is usually only attained in thicker walls.

l accpmplish these objects, and others, as will be hereinafter apparent, by providing a system of metallic ties or reinforcings for the structure, and by providing special forms of bricks or blocks adapted to cooperate with the ties or reinforcements. Typically, as l will explain, these bricks or blocks may best be supplied in two formations, as thereby they are enabled to be laid in staggered formations to increase the solidity and strength of the wall.

All these things will be best understood from the following detailed description wherein ll explain a specific and preferred form of structure illustrative of the invention, reference for that purpose being had to the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a face view, with parts broken away and shown in section, showing a wall construction in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan of the same;

Figs. 3 and d are erspectives of the two types of bricks or b ocks thatmay be used in the structure;

' Fig. 5 is a perspective showing the formaition of a corner brick or block;

Fig. 6 is a perspective showing a variational form of brick or block to take the place of that shown in Fig. 3;

Fig. is a fragmentary vertical cross sectlon illustrating the completed structureof a wall;

Fig. 8 is a longitudinal section on line 8 3 of Fig. 7;

Flgs. 9, 10, and 11 are central longitudinal vertical sections of the forms of brick or block shown in Figs. 3, 4f, and 6, respecd tively; and

Fig. 12 is a plan of the brick or block shown in Figs. 6 and 11.

In the drawings I show a wall structure made up of elements illustrated to be of about the same size and shape as ordina bricks; and in the following descriptionrl shall use the term bricks as applied to these elements. But at the same time it will be understood that such a brick is only a typical illustration of a block element; and that the 'elements may be made of any suitable material and of any desired size and proportional dimensions.

ln Figs. 1 and 2 l show a wall structure made up of a series of courses of alsingle thickness of brick elements 1() and 11, laid in staggered formation and` with vertical tie or reinforcing rods 12 running through the assembled bricks, and horizontal tie plates 13 extending horizontally through the wall. The vertical rods 12'may be placed in any desired spacing as the bricks are so formed that the rods may be put in position in practically any location desired; and the horizontal tie plates 13 may be interposed between adjacent courses of brick in any desired spacing. t

To build a wall of this character l yrst lay down a suitable foundation, asthe concrete foundation shown at 14, and the lower ends of the vertical tie rods are anchored in the foundation as indicated at 15. The tie rods are preferably made in sections, with double ended nuts 16 (or internally threaded sleeves) forming connectors between the several sections, the nuts being arranged so as to come immediately above a horizontal tie plate 13 and being turned down on the tie plate to hold it rmly in place and compress the bricks in the courses under that tie plate. 'lhe skeleton frame work of vertical and horizontal ties may be assembled before the bricks are put in place or may be assembled as the brick laying progresses.

Bricks of type l0 and of type l1 are specically dierentybut in common they have a projectin tongue 2O centrally along one longitudina edge surface (say their ower edge surface, although the bricks may be la1d with either edge up) and they have a complementary longitudinal groove 21 centrally along their upper longitudmal edge. When the bricks are laid, these grooves take thelr complementary tongues and thus lock the bricks together as regards' relative transverse movement. Each type of brick has a shallow vertical slot 22 at one end and the type 10 has a lon vertical slot 23 that reaches in Ifrom its ot er end to a point a little past the center o9 the brick, while type- 11 has at its other end another shallow vertlcal slot 22. The type of brick shown at 11 1s the one that may be regarded as being standard, as I prefer to lay the larger part of the wall with this type of brick. The type of brick shown at 10 is preferably only used 1n each alternate course at points where the vertical tie rods 12 run. through. I do not necessarily mean this statement to be a restriction on the. specific manner in which the bricks may be laid up, as bricks of the type 10 may be used at other places 1n the wall structure; but I prefer to use them only as stated. Thus, the positions of the vertical tie rrods rhaving been determined, I first begin to lay the lowermost course of brick 'seither wholly of the type 11 or mostly. of the type 11. If for instance, the vertical tie rods 12 are spaced apart a distance equal to a multiple of the length dimension of the bricks, then the lowermost course may be laid entirely of thetype 1 1, the tie rods then passing through the opemngs that are made b the registering vertical grooves 22 at the a utting ends of the bricks 11. If however, the distance between the tie rods necessitates that a tie rods 12 shall run through the center of a brick of this course, then a brick of the type 10 is inserted in the proper place Then in laying the next brick course, at

I least the majority of the bricks used will preferably be of the type 11; but, the bricks of this course being staggered with relation to the bricks of the lowermost course, there will be some bricks cf the second course through the center of which the tie rods 12 will pass. Here again a brick of the type 10 is used. And so, course after course of bricks are laid, using bricks of the type 10 lateral movement.

wherever a rod 12 passes centrally through a brick and using bricks of ty e 11 otherwise; until a suitable number o courses has been reached and it is desired to install a horizontal tie plate 13. These tie plates are preferably in the form of fiat bars-strap iron or steelwith apertures 13 at proper intervals to take the vertical rods 12. The width of these bars is such as to fit into the longitudinal brick roove 21; and so these bars are laiddirect y in the grooves 21 (or on top of the tongues 20 as the case may be, as the bricks may be laid with either the tongue or the groove uppermost) and then the nuts 16 are turned down on bars 13 to compress them solidly onto the courses of brick below. Then the next section of vertical rods 12 may be put in place and the laying of brick courses carried on until the position of the next' horizontal tie bar is reached, when the operation is repeated. At the top of the wall a similar tie bar or a top plate as shown at 13b may be used. This top plate may be designed to be simply a finishing' arrangement for the top of the wall, or it may be designed to lay a functional part in the structure o? which the brick wall forms a part.

For forming corners I will utilize a corner brick of the type shown at lla. This brick is L-shaped in plan and at its two ends it has the vertical grooves 22 and has tongues 20 at its top or bottom vand groove 21 at its bottomoor top as the case may be. It will be .readily understood how these corner11 bricks are used at the corner of the wa Now, although it would be necessary only to use bricks of the type 11 at the points where the vertical rods 12 run through the wall, I prefer to use that type of brick for the body of the wall structure because the openings formed by the registering end grooves 22 ai'ord a place for the reception of mortar or cement, which when hardened, forms a lockin element between the ends of adjacent brlcks of each course, locking them against relative lateral movement. Likewise wherever bricks of the t e 10 are used their long slots 23 register wit a shallow slot 22 in an adjacent brick of the type 11, and the mortar filling that is put into these two registering grooves likewise forms a lock against relative lateral movement as between the two endwise abuttin bricks. I have explained how the bricks cfg one course are locked to the bricks of adjacent courses by the tongues and grooves 20 and l2l and thus prevented from having any relative Thus in m structure it will be seen that each lbric is locked against relative lateral movement not only to adjacent bricks of its own course, but also to adjacent bricks of both the adjacent courses. v j

raoaaea In building a wall with the elements ll have described yit is not necessary that any mortar be laid between adjacent bricks, whether in the same course or whether in adjacent courses. The bricks may be laid in the ordinary manner and pointed with mortar between them,- if desired. But my structure and method of assembly makes this unnecessary; and ll prefer to save the expense of material and time necessar to the laying of mortar between the bricks, and only use mortar to fill in the interior spaces that are formed by the grooves 22 and 23. It may be desirable to lay a thin ground of mortar over the tongues and grooves to take up any looseness of lit between them; and likewise it may be desirable to lay a thin mortar over the abuttin ends and top and bottom surfaces of the bricks to make the Wall impervious; but in any case it is not necessary to lay the usual large amount of mortar thus between the bricks. The registering grooves 22 form openings that pass the reinforcing rods 12 somewhat loosely; likewise the opening 23a in a brick of the type 10a is made in practice to fit loosely around rod l2. 'llhese openings are also filled with mortar or cement as the work progresses, as well as the openings formed by the grooves 22 where there is no reenforcing rod and the openings formed by the long grooves 23.

Having described a preferred form of my invention, ll claim 1. A reenforced block structure, comprising a series of spaced parallel reenforcing rods, and a plurality of courses of blocks, the courses being transverse of the reenforc- `ing rods, and the blocks adjacent the reenforcing rods having grooves in their end surfaces to embrace the rods; the blocks of adjacent courses being laid in staggered reing ,a series of spaced parallel reenforcing rods, and a plurality of courses -of blocks, the courses being transverse of the reenforcing rods, and the blocks adjacent the reenforcing rods having grooves in their end surfaces to embrace the rods; the blocks g of adjacent courses being laid in staggered relation, and the end grooves of blocks4 in one course being comparatively shallow and of blocks in an adjacent course being oomparatively deep and reaching in depth from the end of the block to approximately its center; each block having on one of its horizontal surfaces a tongue and on its opposite surface a complementary tongue or tongues of bloc course.

3. lln a structure such as here described, a block with a rod receiving groove in its end, said groove extending in depth from the end of the block to approximately the f jlerter of the block for the purposes specioove to take the s in an adjacent ln witness that l[ claim the foregoing lfy have hereunto subscribed my day of February 1923.

name this 3rd 

